BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 


NUT.  er  CALIF.  WBltAKY. 


BROTHERS   IN  ARMS 

BY 

E.  ALEXANDER  POWELL 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK  : !  THE 
RIVERSIDE  PRESS  CAMBRIDGE 


COPYRIGHT,    1917,    BY    E.   ALEXANDER    POWELL 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  JFune  iqif 


To 

Brigadier-General  Joseph  E.  Kuhn,  U.S.A. 

and  his  associates  of  the  Army  War  College 

in  appreciation  of  the  many  kindnesses 

they  have  shown  me 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

WE  fight  once  more  for  freedom.  For 
the  fifth  time  in  our  history  we  draw 
the  sword  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 
The  Revolution  won  the  freedom  of 
the  nation.  In  1812  we  fought  for  the 
freedom  of  the  seas.  The  Civil  War 
was  waged  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  and  the  liberation  of  the  slaves. 
We  went  to  war  with  Spain  that 
Cuba  might  be  free.  Now  we  enter 
the  Great  War  to  preserve  democ- 
racy and  to  insure  the  freedom  of  the 
world.  And  France,  after  an  interim 
of  nearly  seven-score  years,  is  our 
ally  once  again.  In  order  to  draw 
closer  the  bonds  of  our  ancient 
friendship,  to  hearten  us  in  the  tre- 


4          BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

mendous  task  which  we  have  under- 
taken, and  to  place  at  our  disposal 
the  knowledge  for  which  she  has  paid 
in  blood  and  tears,  France  sent  to  us 
across  perilous  seas  a  mission  com- 
posed of  her  most  illustrious  men. 
She  sent  them  as  a  reminder  that  she 
was  our  first  friend  among  the  nations 
and  an  old  comrade  in  arms,  and 
because  her  ideals  and  aspirations 
are  identical  with  our  own.  It  was 
as  though  she  had  stretched  out  a 
hand  across  the  ocean  and  laid  it 
on  America's  shoulder  and  had  said, 
"Sister,  well  done." 

Though  the  coming  of  these  men 
stirs  our  souls  and  grips  our  imagina- 
tion, we  are  still  too  close  to  the  pic- 
ture to  perceive  its  full  beauty  and 
grandeur.  Real  appreciation  of  its 
significance  to  ourselves  and  to  the 


BROTHERS   IN   ARMS          5 

world  can  come  only  with  the  years. 
When  time  grants  it  the  justice  of 
perspective,  the  visit  of  the  French 
envoys  to  our  shores  will  be  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  turning-points  in 
our  history.  It  will  prove  as  epochal 
as  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  as 
the  coming  of  Rochambeau,  as  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves.  Mean- 
while we  must  not  make  the  mistake 
of  looking  on  it  as  merely  a  pictur- 
esque incident  which  afforded  an  ex- 
cuse for  processions  and  banquets 
and  addresses  of  welcome.  It  has  a 
far  deeper  meaning;  it  means  that 
History,  in  writing  the  story  of  the 
American  people,  has  begun  a  new 
chapter. 

Because  I  have  myself  marched 
with  the  armies  of  France,  because  in 
her  hospitals  I  have  seen  the  endless 


6          BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

rows  of  white-bandaged  wounded 
and  upon  her  hillsides  the  other 
rows  of  white  crosses,  because  I  have 
witnessed  the  desecration  of  her 
churches  and  the  destruction  of  her 
cities  and  the  cruelties  inflicted  on 
her  civil  population  by  a  brutal  and 
ruthless  soldiery,  because  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  I  admire  her 
courage,  her  serenity,  her  abstinence 
from  all  complaint,  because  I  appre- 
ciate the  sentiment  which  prompted 
her  to  send  us  these  great  men  as 
a  pledge  of  her  friendship  and  faith, 
and  because  I  wish  those  of  my  coun- 
try-people who  have  not  had  the 
opportunity  of  knowing  the  French 
as  well  as  I  have  to  understand 
what  manner  of  men  are  these,  our 
brothers  in  arms,  I  have  written  this 
little  book. 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS          7 

On  the  25th  of  April,  1917,  —  it  is 
a  date  which  we  shall  teach  our  chil- 
dren, —  the  anchor  of  the  Lorraine, 
which  brought  the  commissioners 
from  France,  rumbled  down  off  the 
Virginia  shore.  The  route  by  which 
the  mission  traveled  from  the  Capes 
of  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Capital 
held  in  its  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  miles  more  places  of  historical 
significance  to  the  American  people 
than  any  other  route  of  like  distance 
that  could  be  laid  out  on  a  map 
of  the  world.  At  Hampton  Roads, 
where  the  commissioners  boarded 
the  Mayflower,  which  was  to  take 
them  up  the  Potomac  to  Washington, 
was  fought  the  first  battle  between 
ironclads;  a  battle  which  sent  the 
wooden  navies  of  Europe  to  the 
scrap-heap  and  changed  the  history 


8  BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

of  the  world.  Across  the  bay  the  visi- 
tors could  see  the  mouth  of  the 
James,  up  which  sailed,  two  centuries 
ago,  Captain  John  Smith  and  his 
fellow-adventurers,  to  found  on  its 
shores  the  first  permanent  English 
settlement  in  the  New  World.  A 
half-hour's  steam  brought  them  to 
the  mouth  of  another  river,  the  York, 
where  once  lay  the  frigates  of  the 
Comte  de  Grasse,  the  lilied  flag  of 
France  drooping  from  their  sterns. 
Here  one  of  the  commissioners,  the 
young  Marquis  de  Chambrun,  might 
have  said  with  pardonable  pride,  "A 
few  miles  up  that  river  my  grand- 
father, the  Marquis  de  Lafayette, 
helped  General  Washington  to  win 
the  battle  which  assured  to  the  Amer- 
ican Colonies  their  independence." 
Now  the  Mayflower  entered  the 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS          9 

Potomac,  a  stream  whose  every 
mile  is  peopled  with  the  ghosts  of  the 
history-makers.  Here  the  imagina- 
tive Frenchmen,  leaning  over  the 
steamer's  rail,  with  the  incompara- 
ble landscape  slipping  past,  could  not 
but  have  yielded  to  the  river's  mys- 
tic spell.  Lulled  by  the  ripple  of  the 
water  running  aft  along  the  hull,  they 
found  themselves  living  in  this  re- 
gion's storied  and  romantic  past. 
Indians  in  paint  and  feathers  slipped 
silently  along  in  their  barken  war- 
canoes.  Lean  and  sun-bronzed  white 
men,  clad  in  the  fringed  buckskin  of 
the  adventuring  frontiersman,  float- 
ed past  them  down  the  stream.  A 
square-rigged  merchantman  poked 
its  inquisitive  bowsprit  around  a 
rocky  headland,  seeking  a  spot  at 
which  its  band  of  colonists  might 


10        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

land.  Frigates,  flying  the  flag  of 
England  and  with  the  black  muzzles 
of  guns  peering  from  their  tiers  of 
ports,  cautiously  ascended,  the  leads- 
men in  the  shrouds  sounding  for 
river-bars.  Log  forts  and  trading 
posts  and  mission  stations  once  again 
crowned  the  encircling  hills.  For- 
gotten battles  blew  by  on  the  eve- 
ning breeze.  A  yellow  dust-cloud  rose 
above  the  river-bank  and  out  of  it 
emerged  a  plodding  wagon  train. 
The  smoke  of  pioneer  camp-fires 
spiraled  skyward  from  those  rich 
Maryland  valleys,  where  in  reality 
sleek  cattle  browsed  in  lush-green 
pastures  and  the  orchards  were  pink 
and  white  with  promised  fruit. 
Borne  on  the  night  wind  came  the 
rumble  of  ghostly  cannonading,  and 
the  thoughts  of  the  visitors  harked 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        11 

back  to  the  month-long  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  fought  yonder,  amid  the 
Virginia  forests,  by  the  armies  of 
Grant  and  Lee.  Dawn  came,  and 
out  of  the  mist  to  starboard  loomed 
the  peninsula  of  Indian  Head,  where 
the  ridiculed  inventor,  Langley, 
flew,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
a  motor-driven  aeroplane  —  fore- 
runner of  the  thousands  of  aircraft 
which  to-day  swoop  and  soar  and 
circle  above  the  battle-line.  In  the 
very  waters  through  which  the  May- 
flower was  now  ploughing,  a  poor 
Irish  schoolmaster,  John  Philip  Hol- 
land, evolved  the  marvel  of  the  un- 
dersea boat  and  thereby  did  more 
to  shape  the  course  of  this  war  than 
Haig  or  Hindenburg  or  Marshal 
Joffre  himself.  Now  above  the  port 
rail,  high  on  its  wooded  hillside, 


12        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

showed  the  stately  white  facade  of 
Mount  Vernon,  the  home  of  the 
founder  of  this  nation  and  the  first 
leader  of  its  armies,  and,  close  by, 
the  modest  brick  tomb  where  the 
great  soldier  and  his  wife  lie  sleep- 
ing. Rounding  the  river  bend,  the 
mighty  shaft  of  the  Washington 
Monument  rose  skyward  like  a  point- 
ing finger,  as  though  emphasizing  the 
motto  graved  upon  our  coins.  Alex- 
andria, with  its  white  steeples  and 
its  old,  old  houses,  came  in  view,  and 
beyond  it  the  templed  hills  of  Arling- 
ton, where  rest,  in  their  last  bivouac, 
the  men  who  died  for  the  Union. 
Now  the  long  journey  of  the  French- 
men was  almost  finished ;  their  des- 
tination was  at  hand.  Slowly,  with 
much  clanging  of  bells  and  shouting 
of  orders,  the  white  yacht  sidled  up 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        13 

to  the  quay,  the  gangway  was  run 
out,  the  Marine  Band  burst  into 
Rouget  de  1' Isle's  splendid  Hymn, 
and  the  envoys,  filing  between 
massed  rows  of  bluejackets  whose 
rifles  formed  a  lane  of  burnished 
steel,  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  the 
United  States,  not  as  strangers,  but 
as  allies  and  friends. 

Each  step  in  the  route  of  the  com- 
missioners through  Washington  was 
a  lesson  in  American  history,  and  it 
was  this  that  gave  the  route  its  great 
dignity  and  significance.  It  was  not 
the  cheering  throngs  that  lined  it, 
or  the  thousands  of  flags  that  flut- 
tered from  the  buildings  on  either 
side,  but  the  silent  statues  and  the 
dumb  reminders  of  those  who  had 
gone  before,  who  had  created  this 
nation  and  had  laid  down  their  lives 


14         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

that  this  nation  might  live,  and 
who  had  come  back  this  day  to 
charge  the  route  with  their  unseen 
presence.  The  Navy  Yard,  where 
the  commissioners  landed,  was 
burned,  with  the  rest  of  Washing- 
ton, by  the  British  in  1814,  yet  now, 
barely  a  century  later,  its  found- 
ries were  roaring  night  and  day 
in  the  manufacture  of  guns  to  aid 
Britain.  Swinging  from  Seventh 
Street  into  Pennsylvania  Avenue, 
there  rose  in  the  path  of  the  visitors 
the  splendid  dome  of  the  Capitol, 
and  beneath  that  dome  the  repre- 
sentatives of  eight-and-forty  States 
were  enacting  into  law  the  measures 
which  would  send  to  the  aid  of  France 
millions  of  American  soldiers  and  bil- 
lions of  American  dollars.  At  the  foot 
of  Capitol  Hill  the  envoys  passed  the 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        15 

Naval  Monument,  "In  memory  of 
the  officers,  seamen,  and  marines  who 
fell  in  defense  of  the  Union  and  Lib- 
erty of  their  country." 

And  now  Pennsylvania  Avenue 
stretched,  broad  and  straight  and 
white,  before  them.  At  the  corner  of 
Tenth  Street  they  found  Benjamin 
Franklin  waiting  to  greet  them,  clad 
in  the  dress  he  wore  when  sent  by 
the  infant  republic  to  solicit  the  sym- 
pathy and  aid  of  France,  and  he 
might  have  said  to  them,  "We  owe 
our  independence  to  the  men  and 
money  which  your  country  gave  us." 
From  his  granite  pedestal  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Thirteenth  Street,  Casimir  Pu- 
laski,  the  Polish  soldier  who  fell  be- 
fore Savannah,  debonair  in  his  busby 
with  its  slanting  feather  and  his 
swinging  dolman,  saluted  the  French- 


16        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

men  as  they  passed.  At  the  end  of 
the  Avenue,  opposite  the  imposing 
portico  of  the  Treasury,  Sherman  sat 
on  his  bronze  charger,  just  as  he 
must  have  sat,  half  a  century  ago, 
when  down  this  same  avenue  swept 
in  the  Last  Review  the  war-worn 
hosts  of  the  Grand  Army,  their  tat- 
tered battle-flags  flaunting  above 
the  slanting  lines  of  steel,  while  the 
delirious  crowds  which  packed  the 
sidewalks  chanted  the  marching- 
song  of  Sherman's  men :  — 

"  So  we  made  a  thoroughfare  for  Freedom 
and  her  train, 

Sixty  miles  in  latitude,  three  hundred  to 
the  main; 

Treason  fled  before  us,  for  resistance  was 
in  vain, 

While  we  were  marching  through  Geor- 
gia." 

Swinging  around  the  corner  of  the 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        17 

Treasury  Building,  with  a  distant 
glimpse  of  the  stately  Grecian  temple 
reared  by  a  loving  people  in  memory 
of  their  murdered  President,  the  pro- 
cession passed  the  White  House, 
rising,  pale  and  lovely,  from  amid 
its  trees  and  flowers.  At  the  corner 
of  Madison  Place  our  first  French 
friend,  Lafayette,  extended  a  wel- 
coming hand  to  his  countrymen,  and 
awaiting  them,  a  few  rods  beyond, 
was  Rochambeau,  who  commanded 
the  French  armies  at  Yorktown.  In 
the  center  of  the  square  Andrew  Jack- 
son, the  frontiersman  who  at  New 
Orleans  routed  the  Peninsular  vet- 
erans of  Wellington,  sat  on  his  pranc- 
ing horse,  guarded  by  captured  can- 
non, and  raised  his  cocked  hat  in 
hearty  greeting.  Then  past  the  statue 
of  Baron  von  Steuben,  the  adjutant 


18         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

and  friend  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
who  exchanged  the  glitter  of  the 
Prussian  Court  for  the  misery  of 
Valley  Forge,  and  who,  were  he 
alive  to-day,  would,  I  fancy,  once 
again  be  fighting  on  the  side  of  free- 
dom. A  stone's  throw  beyond,  in 
front  of  the  house  where  Dolly 
Madison  once  held  her  republican 
court,  stood  Kosciusko,  the  Polish 
light-horseman,  who,  when  his  sword 
was  no  longer  needed  by  America, 
returned  to  his  own  people  and  lies 
buried  in  the  Cathedral  of  Cracow. 
Then  the  cortege,  with  its  cloud  of 
clattering  troopers  in  blue  and  yel- 
low, swerved  sharply  into  Sixteenth 
Street,  the  beautiful  thoroughfare 
which  should,  and  some  day  doubt- 
less will,  be  dignified  by  being 
named  "The  Avenue  of  the  Presi- 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         19 

dents,"  and  was  lost  to  sight  amid  its 
foliage  and  its  fluttering  flags. 

The  procession  was  not  as  effec- 
tive as  it  might  have  been,  first,  be- 
cause it  moved  so  rapidly  as  to  give 
the  impression  that  those  in  charge 
of  it  were  worried  and  anxious  to  get 
it  over  with,  and  secondly,  because 
so  many  generals  and  admirals  and 
cabinet  ministers  were  crowded  into 
the  automobiles  that  the  people  on 
the  streets  had  great  difficulty  in  dis- 
tinguishing them.  In  a  foreign  coun- 
try there  would  have  been  lines  of 
soldiers  and  police  to  push  the  on- 
lookers back  and  keep  the  way  clear, 
but  here  there  was  nothing  of  the 
sort,  for  the  men  in  the  crowd  acted 
as  their  own  police  and  looked  after 
their  guests  themselves,  which  was 
more  democratic  and  essentially 


20         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

American.  But  the  most  memor- 
able feature  of  the  affair,  when  all  is 
said  and  done,  was  the  extraordinary 
warmth  and  spontaneity  of  the  wel- 
come which  the  people  extended  to 
their  visitors.  The  sidewalks  surged 
with  waving  hats  and  upraised  hands 
as  the  cortege  passed  and  the  cheers 
rose  into  a  roar  which  drowned  the 
chorus  of  the  motor-horns  and  the 
clatter  of  the  cavalry.  The  women 
in  the  windows  and  on  the  balco- 
nies waved  their  handkerchiefs  and 
cheered,  and  the  men  beat  the  air 
with  their  hats  and  cheered,  and  the 
white-mustached  old  soldier  raised 
his  hand  again  and  again  to  the  visor 
of  his  scarlet  kepi  and  smiled  at  the 
people  and  winked  away  the  tears  in 
his  eyes.  .t 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         21 

In  sending  Marshal  Joffre  to  the 
United  States,  the  French  Govern- 
ment did  a  peculiarly  wise  and  happy 
thing.  Viviani,  Chocheprat,  de 
Chambrun  —  their  names  held  no 
significance  for  most  Americans. 
But  Joffre !  Ah,  there  was  a  name  to 
conjure  with.  The  hero  of  the  Marne, 
the  bulwark  of  civilization,  he  was 
the  one  figure  in  the  whole  world  the 
mere  sight  of  whom  would  instantly 
fan  into  flame  the  slumbering  fires 
of  American  patriotism.  In  the  first 
place,  he  did  not  come  to  us  as  a 
stranger.  We  already  knew  him,  you 
see,  through  the  illustrated  papers 
and  the  motion-picture  screens, — 
a  stoutish,  white-mustached,  twin- 
kling-eyed, benevolent-looking  old 
gentleman  in  a  great  blue  coat, 
walking  rather  heavily  down  lanes 


22        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

of  motionless  troops  with  their  rifles 
held  rigidly  toward  him,  or  stoop- 
ing over  a  hospital  cot  to  pin  to  the 
breast  of  a  wounded  soldier  a  bit 
of  enamel  and  ribbon,  —  and  seeing 
him  thus,  day  after  day,  he  became 
as  familiar  to  us  as  Colonel  Roose- 
velt and  Andrew  Carnegie  and 
Billy  Sunday.  And  because  we 
recognized  that  he  was,  despite  his 
splendid  achievements  and  his  sound- 
ing title,  a  simple,  kindly,  homely 
man,  our  great  admiration  for  him 
grew  into  a  sort  of  personal  affec- 
tion. He  does  not  dazzle  us  with  the 
glamour  of  Napoleon;  he  does  not 
pique  our  curiosity  like  Kitchener;  he 
does  not  appeal  to  our  sympathies 
like  King  Albert;  the  appeal  that  he 
makes  is  to  our  hearts  and  our  im- 
aginations. He  is  —  I  must  have 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         23 

recourse  to  a  Spanish  word  to  express 
my  meaning  —  simpatico.  We  recog- 
nize his  greatness,  but  it  does  not 
awe  us.  We  feel  that  he  is  "home 
folks,"  that  in  the  humblest  dwelling 
he  would  be  at  home;  we  would  like 
to  give  him  the  big  armchair  by  the 
fire  and  a  pair  of  slippers  and  a  cigar 
and  visit  with  him.  For  he  is  a  man 
of  the  people,  as  simple,  as  friendly, 
as  democratic  as  Lincoln.  We  re- 
member the  story  told  about  him; 
that  he  said  that  when  the  Germans 
had  been  driven  out  of  France  he 
wanted  no  triumphal  entry  into 
Paris,  but  that  he  wanted  to  go  fish- 
ing. We  understand  such  a  man. 

This  war  has  been  singularly  bar- 
ren of  heroic  figures,  perhaps  because 
its  very  magnitude  has  produced 
such  a  multitude  of  heroes  that  no 


24        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

one  can  be  placed  before  the  rest,  yet, 
when  this  greatest  phase  of  history 
comes  to  be  written  down  with  his- 
toric perspective,  it  is  probable  that 
Joseph  Joffre  will  stand  forth  as  its 
most  imposing  figure.  As  Charles 
Martel,  "the  Hammer  of  God," 
saved  Europe  from  Arab  conquest 
at  Tours,  and  John  Sobieski,  by  turn- 
ing back  the  Turks  from  the  gates  of 
Vienna,  saved  the  cause  of  Christian- 
ity, so  Joffre  broke  the  wave  of  Ger- 
man invasion  at  the  Marne  and  saved 
mankind  from  subjection  to  a  no  less 
barbarous  despotism.  In  this  elderly 
man  in  the  scarlet  kepi  we  see  one  of 
the  world's  great  captains.  His  fame 
is  immortal;  his  place  in  history  is 
secure.  Future  generations  will  point 
to  his  visit  to  these  shores  as  one  of 
the  great  events  of  our  history.  But 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         25 

I  like  to  think  that  the  delirious 
enthusiasm  which  he  everywhere 
aroused  was  something  more  than  a 
tribute  to  the  greatness  of  the  man 
and  the  magnitude  of  his  achieve- 
ments. I  like  to  think  that  the  cheers 
which  greeted  him  meant,  rather, 
that  we  welcomed  his  presence  on 
American  soil  as  a  tangible  sign  that 
we  had  at  last  returned  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  our  fathers,  that  we  had  re- 
gained our  self-respect,  that  we  had 
offered  the  sacrifice  which  will  save 
the  nation's  soul. 

Though  the  coming  of  Joffre  had 
in  most  quarters  the  effect  of  a  great 
spiritual  awakening,  it  was  only  to 
be  expected  that  there  should  be 
some  who  would  question  the  mo- 
tives which  brought  him.  These 
mean-souled  little  men  went  about 


26        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

whispering  in  their  mean  and  furtive 
way  that  the  Marshal  and  his  com- 
panions were  by  no  means  as  dis- 
interested as  they  would  have  liked 
us  to  believe.  When  we  hear  such 
cynical  intimations,  it  might  be  well 
for  us  to  bear  in  mind,  however,  that 
in  their  day  the  motives  of  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln  were  repeatedly  im- 
pugned. But  their  critics  have  long 
since  passed  into  the  limbus  of  obliv- 
ion, while  the  men  they  criticized 
will  live  forever  in  the  hearts  of  their 
countrymen.  That  the  French  hoped 
and  prayed  for  our  aid  they  would, 
I  imagine,  be  the  last  to  deny.  Cer- 
tainly their  need  of  it  was  desperate. 
But  the  fact  that  we  have  afforded 
them  financial  assistance  does  not 
justify  us  in  assuming  the  airs  of  phi- 
lanthropists, for  we  are  nothing  of  the 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         27 

sort.  The  money  that  we  have  fur- 
nished France  is  not  given,  but 
loaned,  just  as  a  bank  loans  money 
to  an  individual  of  known  responsi- 
bility, and,  moreover,  every  dollar  of 
it  is  to  be  expended  in  the  United 
States,  thus  providing  employment 
for  millions  of  our  people.  That  we, 
who  sent  Franklin  to  implore  the 
aid  of  the  French  king,  we  who  ac- 
cepted from  France  a  loan  which  we 
have  never  repaid,  we  who  owe  our 
very  existence  as  a  nation  to  French 
soldiers,  French  ships,  and  French 
money,  should  presume  to  criticize 
France  for  eagerly  accepting  what 
we  freely  offered,  is  but  to  show  a 
lack  of  gratitude  and  of  good  taste. 
Nor  let  us  forget  that  France,  the 
grip  of  the  invader  at  her  throat  and 
her  resources  in  men  and  money 


28         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

drained  all  but  dry,  has  never,  by 
word  or  hint,  reminded  us  of  our 
long-standing  obligation. 

The  purposes  which  prompted  the 
sending  of  the  French  Mission  are  set 
forth  by  M.  Viviani  with  a  grace  and 
beauty  of  expression  which  are  pe- 
culiarly French.  No  true  American 
can  read  his  words  and  not  be 
thrilled  by  the  sincerity  and  unself- 
ishness breathed  in  every  line :  — 

"We  have  come  to  this  land  to 
salute  the  American  people  and  its 
government,  to  call  to  fresh  vigor 
our  life-long  friendship,  sweet  and 
cordial  in  the  ordinary  course  of  our 
lives,  but  which  these  tragic  hours 
have  raised  to  all  the  ardor  of  a  broth- 
erly love  —  a  brotherly  love  which, 
in  these  last  years  of  suffering,  has 
multiplied  its  most  touching  expres- 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         29 

sions.  You  have  given  help,  not  only 
in  treasure,  in  every  act  of  kindness 
and  good-will;  but  for  us  your  chil- 
dren have  shed  their  blood,  and  the 
names  of  your  sacred  dead  are  in- 
scribed forever  in  our  hearts." 

One  feels,  upon  reading  these 
words,  that  the  glowing  tribute  is 
undeserved.  It  has  taken  us  three 
years  —  three  long  and  bitter  years 
of  agony  for  France  —  to  recognize 
what  she  has  known  from  the  begin- 
ning :  that  the  cause  for  which  she  is 
fighting  is  our  cause,  that  not  merely 
the  future  of  France  but  our  own 
future,  the  future  of  democracy,  is  at 
stake.  We  are  late  in  acting,  and 
some  historians  of  the  future  will 
probably  be  unkind  enough  to  say 
that  we  were  almost  too  late;  but  let 
us  resolve  that  we  will  make  up  for 


30         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

the  tardiness  with  which  we  enter 
the  struggle  by  the  fullness  of  the 
strength  which  we  put  into  it;  that 
we  will  spend,  if  need  be,  our  last 
dollar  and  our  last  man ;  and  that  we 
will  not  relax  our  efforts  by  a  whit 
until  this  Prussian  horror  is  no  more. 
I  believe  that  we  are  at  heart  a 
people  of  high  ideals.  Critics  have 
said  of  us  that  our  finer  sensibilities 
have  been  blunted  by  our  extraor- 
dinary commercial  success,  that  our 
earlier  ideals  have  been  lost  sight  of 
in  the  business  of  growing  rich,  that 
we  prefer  the  dollar  mark  to  the 
laurel  wreath.  It  is  true  that  we 
have  drunk  too  deeply  of  material 
success,  but,  thank  God,  we  have 
come  to  our  senses  before  it  is 
too  late!  We  are  our  true  selves 
once  again.  We  have  shown  that 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        31 

the  altruism  which  caused  us  to  go 
to  war  with  Spain  that  Cuba  might 
be  free,  which  led  us  to  pay  for  the 
Philippines,  already  ours  by  force 
of  arms,  which  induced  us  to  return 
the  Boxer  indemnity  to  China,  still 
guides  our  actions.  We  have  not  en- 
tered upon  this  war  to  avenge  our 
murdered  citizens;  we  have  not  gone 
into  it  for  territorial  aggrandizement 
or  trade  expansion,  we  have  not  gone 
into  it  to  pay  our  debt  to  France;  we 
have  gone  to  war  from  the  most  un- 
selfish motive  that  ever  actuated  a 
nation  —  the  desire  to  serve  man- 
kind. Our  victory  —  for  we  never 
have  and  we  never  will  enter  upon 
a  losing  war — will  be  a  victory  of 
morality  and  right  and  will  assure  to 
all  our  children  a  world  in  which  they 
can  live  in  peace  and  happiness. 


32         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

We  have  been  charged  with  being 
France-mad.  Yet,  when  you  stop 
to  think  about  it,  there  is  nothing 
strange  in  our  attachment  for  the 
French.  .We  are  both  idealistic  and 
intensely  sentimental  peoples.  The 
name  of  France  is  indissolubly  linked 
with  the  early  history  of  this  coun- 
try. The  first  religion,  the  first  edu- 
cation, the  first  attempts  at  govern- 
ment, and  the  first  settlement  of  that 
vast  middle  region  which  stretches 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf 
were  French,  and  French  influence 
has  extended  over  its  entire  existence. 
A  son  of  France,  Jacques  Cartier,  was 
the  first  European  to  step  beyond 
the  threshold  of  the  unguessed  con- 
tinent. Our  mightiest  river  was  first 
explored  throughout  its  length  by  a 
Frenchman,  and  the  people  who  dwell 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         33 

to-day  upon  the  lands  it  waters  are 
geographical  descendants  of  France. 
At  the  mouth  of  this  river  the  me- 
tropolis of  the  South  is  named  after 
a  city  in  France;  a  thousand  miles 
upstream  another  busy  city  keeps  on 
the  lips  of  thousands  the  name  of  a 
French  king;  while,  still  farther  to 
the  north,  yet  a  third  great  hive  of 
industry  is  named  for  the  detroit  on 
which  it  stands,  though  the  French- 
man who  gave  it  its  name  would  not 
understand  our  pronunciation  of  it. 
Such  was  the  domain  which  France 
conquered  for  Civilization.  Our  na- 
tional capital  was  planned  by  a 
Frenchman,  and  to  the  vision  of  an- 
other Frenchman  we  owe  the  water- 
way which  links  the  oceans  at  Pan- 
ama. The  debt  of  America  to  France, 
though  more  direct,  is  no  less  obvious 


34        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

than  France's  debt  to  America,  for 
the  American  Revolution  inspired  the 
French  Revolution,  and  the  specta- 
cle of  a  free  America  under  Washing- 
ton's administration  proved  a  con- 
tinual stimulus  to  the  French  in  their 
own  struggle  for  freedom.  It  is  this 
solidarity  of  history,  of  sentiment,  of 
aspiration  which  brings  the  French 
and  ourselves  so  close  together  in 
this  supreme  struggle  for  liberty. 

Even  our  national  colors  are  the 
same :  that  red,  white,  and  blue  which 
—  as  some  poetic  Frenchman  has 
said  —  symbolizes  the  rise  of  democ- 
racy from  blood,  through  peace,  to 
Heaven. 

There  has  been  much  talk  of  France 
having  been  reborn  through  the 
agony  of  this  war.  Therein  we  are 
wrong.  It  is  merely  that  we  Ameri- 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         35 

cans  have  known  the  French  only 
superficially,  and  that,  in  thinking 
and  speaking  of  them,  we  have  in- 
dulged in  the  careless  and  inaccurate 
habit  of  generalization.  We  have 
subscribed  to  the  tradition  of  the 
superficiality  and  frivolity  of  the 
French  people.  We  have  believed 
them  lacking  in  seriousness  and  per- 
severance, a  strange  misunderstand- 
ing of  the  race  which  has  produced 
Richelieu  and  Talleyrand  and  Robes- 
pierre, La  Salle  and  Marquette  and 
Champlain.  We  thought  them  vola- 
tile and  temperamental,  these  coun- 
trymen of  Bossuet  and  Montes- 
quieu, of  Pascal  and  Corneille.  We 
were  wont  to  say  quite  patroniz- 
ingly that  French  soldiers,  though 
they  possessed  verve  and  elan,  were 
not  stayers  and  "last-ditchers"  — 


36        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

this  of  the  men  of  the  Marne  and 
Verdun!  The  trouble  has  always 
been  not  with  France,  but  with  our- 
selves. The  France  that  we  knew  be- 
fore this  war  gave  us  a  broader  vision 
was  the  France  of  Rue  de  la  Paix 
and  the  Champs  filysees,  of  Mont- 
martre  and  the  Latin  Quarter,  of  the 
Louvre  and  the  Luxembourg,  of 
Longchamps  and  Auteuil,  of  Poiret, 
and  Paquin,  of  Giro's  and  Voisin's, 
of  the  Bon  Marche  and  the  Galeries 
Lafayette,  of  the  Opera  and  the 
Comedie  Franchise,  of  the  Riviera 
and  Trouville  and  Aix-les-Bains. 
What  have  we  known  of  the  sober, 
simple-hearted,  industrious,  frugal, 
plain-living,  deeply  religious  people 
who  are  the  real  France?  France 
has  not  been  reborn.  It  is  an  affront 
to  her  to  say  it.  She  has  but  cast 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         37 

aside  the  glittering  garment  which 
she  wore  for  the  gratification  of 
strangers  in  order  to  free  her  sword 
arm. 

If  you  would  understand  the 
spirit  which  animates  the  French 
people,  read  this  letter  which  was 
written  by  a  French  cook  to  his  wife 
the  day  before  he  was  killed  in  ac- 
tion. It  is  but  a  sample  of  thousands. 

My  dear  Yvonne :  — 

Do  not  worry.  I  have  good  hope 
of  seeing  you  again,  as  well  as  our 
Raymond.  I  beg  you  to  take  care 
of  yourself  and  also  of  my  son,  for 
you  know  that  I  should  never  for- 
give you  if  anything  should  happen 
to  you  or  to  him. 

Now,  if  by  chance  anything  should 
happen  to  me,  —  for,  after  all,  we 
are  in  war,  and  of  course  we  are  run- 
ning some  risk,  —  I  hope  you  will  be 
courageous,  and  be  sure  that  if  I  die 


38         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

I  put  all  my  confidence  in  you,  and  I 
ask  you  to  live  in  order  to  bring  up 
my  son  to  be  a  man  —  a  man  of 
spirit  —  and  give  him  a  good  educa- 
tion as  far  as  your  means  will  permit. 

And  above  all  you  shall  tell  him 
when  he  is  grown  up  that  his  father 
died  for  him,  or  at  least  for  a  cause 
which  should  serve  him,  as  well  as 
all  the  generations  to  come. 

Now,  my  dear  Yvonne,  all  this  is 
but  a  precaution,  and  I  expect  to  be 
there  to  aid  you  in  this  task;  but  as 
I  have  said,  one  never  knows  what 
may  happen.  In  any  case  we  are 
leaving  (for  the  front)  all  in  good 
spirits  and  in  the  firm  belief  that  we 
shall  conquer. 

As  to  you,  my  dear  Yvonne,  know 
that  I  have  always  loved  you  and 
that  I  will  love  you  always  no  matter 
what  happens.  As  soon  as  you  can, 
leave  for  Fontenay,  for  on  my  return 
I  should  prefer  to  find  you  there;  and 
once  more  let  me  say  that  I  count  on 
you,  and  that  you  will  be  brave. 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        39 

I  will  give  you  no  more  advice,  for 
I  believe  that  would  be  superfluous. 

Your  little  husband,  who  embraces 
you  tenderly,  as  well  as  dear  Ray- 
mond— 

GEORGES 

America's  entrance  into  the  war 
is  the  surest  guarantee  that  the 
world  can  have  for  a  peaceful  future. 
Our  practically  inexhaustible  mili- 
tary, financial,  industrial,  and  agri- 
cultural resources  give  us  all  the 
trump  cards.  We  can  double  and, 
if  necessary,  redouble,  every  bid  that 
Germany  makes.  We  must  beware, 
however,  of  one  pitfall :  of  assuming 
that  the  war  is  going  to  be  a  short 
one.  England,  notwithstanding  the 
solemn  warnings  of  Lord  Kitchener, 
made  that  mistake  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  and  she  has  paid  for  it  in 
blood  and  tears.  Though  we  are 


40        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

warned  with  all  earnestness  by  the 
men  who  are  best  qualified  to  know 
that  peace  is  not  in  sight,  and  prob- 
ably will  not  be  in  sight  for  many, 
many  months  to  come,  one  never- 
theless hears  on  every  hand  the  con- 
fident assertion  that  Germany  is  on 
her  last  legs,  that  the  morale  of  her 
armies  is  weakening,  that  her  supply 
of  men  is  almost  exhausted,  that  her 
people  are  starving,  and  that  Ameri- 
can troops  will  never  get  within 
sound  of  the  guns  because  the  war 
will  be  over  before  they  can  be  made 
ready  to  send  to  France.  There  is 
no  surer  way  to  prolong  the  war  than 
to  indulge  in  such  talk  as  this.  Why 
deceive  ourselves?  Let  us  look  the 
facts  in  the  face.  Germany  is  not 
starving,  nor  is  there  any  prospect  of 
her  being  brought  to  that  point  for 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         41 

a  long  time  to  come,  if,  indeed,  at 
all.  Her  man-power,  though  greatly 
depleted,  is  not  giving  out.  Her  mo- 
rale apparently  remains  unimpaired; 
in  short,  her  military  machine  still 
seems  impregnable.  Remember, 
moreover,  that  she  is  everywhere 
fighting  on  the  enemy's  soil  and  that 
her  own  frontiers  remain  intact.  The 
extreme  gravity  of  the  situation  was 
recently  made  plain  to  the  Canadian 
Parliament  by  the  Premier,  Sir  Rob- 
ert Borden,  in  these  words:  "A  great 
struggle  still  lies  before  us,  and  I 
cannot  put  it  before  you  more  for- 
cibly than  by  stating  that  at  the 
commencement  of  this  spring's  cam- 
paign Germany  put  into  the  field  a 
million  more  men  than  she  put  into 
the  field  last  spring.  And  that  million 
was  provided  by  Germany  alone  and 


42        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

not  by  the  whole  of  the  Central  Pow- 
ers." There  is,  indeed,  nothing  to 
indicate  at  this  time  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  is  prepared  to 
negotiate  peace  save  on  impossible 
terms.  It  has  been  a  fallacy,  and 
nearly  a  fatal  one  for  the  Allies,  this 
underestimating  the  power  of  Ger- 
many. She  has,  as  some  one  has 
truthfully  said,  made  of  war  "a  na- 
tional industry."  She  is  a  profes- 
sional, while  the  rest  of  us  are,  after 
all,  but  amateurs,  and  she  has  re- 
peatedly shown,  moreover,  that  she 
has  not  the  slightest  intention  of  ad- 
hering to  the  rules  laid  down  by  civil- 
ized nations  for  the  conduct  of  the 
game.  She  has  spikes  on  her  boots 
and  brass  knuckles  on  her  fingers, 
and  she  will  not  hesitate  to  gouge  or 
kick  or  strike  below  the  belt.  She  is 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         43 

a  ferocious,  formidable,  and  desper- 
ate adversary,  possessed  of  immense 
staying  power,  and  the  only  way  we 
can  hope  to  crush  her  in  reasonable 
time  is  by  intelligent  coordination  of 
effort,  by  the  fullest  and  most  pains- 
taking preparation,  and  by  the  exer- 
tion of  every  ounce  of  our  strength. 
Don't  let  us  be  deceived  by  the 
made-in-Germany  talk  of  an  early 
peace.  In  accepting  it  we  are  only 
playing  the  enemy's  game.  In  every 
possible  way  Germany  is  throwing 
out  the  idea  that  the  end  of  the  war 
is  in  sight.  She  is  doing  this  because 
she  knows  that  she  has  reached  the 
crest  of  her  military  strength.  She 
is  at  "the  peak  of  the  load."  She 
knows  that  every  day  she  is  weaker 
by  so  many  men,  and  that  she  no 
longer  has  any  considerable  reserves 


44        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

from  which  to  replace  these  losses. 
She  is  ready  and  anxious  to  quit  — 
upon  her  own  terms.  But  she  is  pre- 
pared to  fight  a  long,  long  time  yet 
before  accepting  the  terms  that  we 
and  our  allies  must  insist  upon  in 
order  to  safeguard  the  future  peace 
of  the  world.  The  mere  appearance 
of  American  troops  upon  the  battle- 
line  is  not  going  to  end  the  war,  as 
so  many  of  our  people  seem  to  think. 
Not  until  America  begins  making 
war  as  though  she  was  facing  Ger- 
many alone  will  it  be  possible  to  pre- 
dict with  any  certainty  when  the  end 
will  come. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
the  American  people  utterly  fail  to 
realize  the  seriousness  of  our  situa- 
tion. In  fact,  the  Government  itself 
did  not  realize  its  gravity  until  from 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         45 

the  lips  of  the  French  and  British 
commissioners  it  learned  the  star- 
tling truth.  Up  to  the  moment  of 
our  entrance  into  the  war  the  Allied 
Governments,  controlling  all  the 
channels  of  information,  had  so  suc- 
cessfully fostered  the  impression  that 
they  had  the  Germans  on  the  run, 
that  all  of  our  people,  save  a  handful 
who  were  in  possession  of  the  facts, 
looked  to  see  the  war  end  in  a  sweep- 
ing victory  for  the  Allies  before  the 
close  of  the  present  year.  The  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that,  had  we  re- 
mained aloof,  the  war  would  in  all 
probability  have  ended  before  this 
year  was  over,  but  not  in  a  victory 
for  the  Allies.  The  almost  pathetic 
eagerness  with  which  the  Allied 
Governments  welcomed  our  prof- 
fered aid  in  money  and  men  is  the 


46        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

best  proof  of  how  desperate  was  their 
plight.  Here  are  the  facts:  Ger- 
many's submarine  campaign  is  an 
almost  unqualified  success.  Unless 
we  can  successfully  and  immediately 
combat  this  menace,  England  is  in 
grave  danger  of  being  brought  within 
measurable  distance  of  starvation. 
France  is  rapidly  approaching  com- 
plete military  and  economic  exhaus- 
tion. The  drain  upon  her  vitality  of 
nearly  three  years  of  war  has  left  her 
faint  and  gasping.  Though  she  has 
inflicted  huge  losses  upon  the  enemy, 
her  own  losses  have  been  enormous, 
and,  with  her  much  smaller  popula- 
tion, she  is  less  able  to  stand  them. 
It  is  not  the  slightest  exaggeration  to 
say  that  France  is  in  as  crying  need 
of  American  assistance  as  were  the 
American  Colonies  when  Rocham- 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         47 

beau  and  his  soldiery  disembarked 
upon  these  shores.  Should  the  Rus- 
sian Republic  be  betrayed  into  mak- 
ing a  separate  peace  —  and,  at  the 
moment  of  writing,  the  Russian  pros- 
pect is  anything  but  cheering  —  the 
Central  Powers  would  have  released 
for  use  upon  the  Western  Front  not 
less  than  two  million  veterans.  The 
war  has  become,  indeed,  a  race  be- 
tween ourselves  and  Germany.  Can 
we  build  food-ships  faster  than  Ger- 
many can  sink  them?  Can  we  raise 
enough  food  to  feed  our  allies  as  well 
as  ourselves?  Can  we  put  more  men 
and  guns  upon  the  Western  Front 
than  Germany  can?  Upon  the  an- 
swers to  these  questions  depends  the 
duration  and  decision  of  the  war. 

If  we  are  to  win  this  war  it  will 
be  necessary  for  us  to  practise  self- 


48        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

denials,  to  endure  hardships,  perhaps 
to  know  sorrows  of  which  we  have 
never  dreamed.  We  must  hold  back 
nothing.  Our  sheltered,  ordered,  com- 
fortable lives  will  be  turned  topsy- 
turvy. There  will  be  no  man,  woman, 
or  child  between  the  oceans  which 
this  war  will  not  in  some  way  affect. 
It  will  impose  burdens  alike  on  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  on  the  old  no  less 
than  on  the  young,  on  women  as 
well  as  on  men.  It  will  entail  innu- 
merable sacrifices,  many  of  which  will 
be  hard  and  some  of  which  will  seem 
unjust,  yet  we  must  accept  them 
cheerfully. 

If  millions  of  our  young  men  are 
prepared  to  give  up  their  lives  for 
their  country,  is  it  too  much  to  ask 
the  rest  of  us  to  give  up  for  a  time 
our  comforts  and  our  pleasures? 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         49 

The  civilian  must  do  his  duty  no 
less  than  the  man  in  khaki.  And 
"  duty,"  at  this  time,  has  many  mean- 
ings. It  is  a  duty  to  pay  taxes.  These 
will,  without  doubt,  be  increased 
again  and  again  and  yet  again  be- 
fore this  war  is  over,  and  in  many 
cases  they  will  be  directly  felt.  The 
man  who  dodges  taxes  when  his 
country  is  at  war  is  more  deserving 
of  contempt  than  the  soldier  who 
shows  the  white  feather  on  the  fir- 
ing-line, for  whereas  the  one  fears  for 
his  life  the  other  fears  only  for  his 
pocketbook.  It  is  a  duty  to  raise 
foodstuffs  and  to  give  every  possible 
encouragement  to  others  to  do  so. 
The  householder  who  refuses  to 
plough  his  yard  and  plant  it  to  vege- 
tables because  it  would  spoil  the 
looks  of  his  place  is  as  much  a  slacker 


50        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

as  the  man  who  attempts  to  evade 
his  military  obligations.  It  is  a  duty 
to  refrain  from  every  form  of  extrav- 
agance. By  this  I  do  not  mean  to 
imply  that  people  should  suddenly 
stop  buying,  but  only  that  they 
should  stop  buying  things  that  they 
do  not  need  or  that  they  can  get 
along  without.  For  how,  pray,  are 
we  to  place  some  seven  billion  dollars 
of  purchasing  power  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Government  unless  we  curtail 
our  individual  expenditures?  And  it 
is  the  duty  of  our  merchants  and 
business  men  to  promptly  cease  their 
gloomy  prophecies  that  an  era  of 
national  economy  will  bring  on  a 
paralysis  of  trade  and  industry.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  will  do  nothing  of 
the  sort.  There  is  far  more  danger  of 
there  being  a  lack  of  workers  than 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        51 

there  is  of  there  being  a  lack  of  work. 
Already  there  is  more  work  in  sight 
than  can  possibly  be  done.  The  ship- 
yards, the  steel-mills,  the  clothing- 
factories,  the  munitions  plants,  the 
mines,  the  farms,  the  railways  are 
all  clamoring  for  it,  and  they  will 
clamor  for  labor  still  more  insistently 
when  a  million  or  so  men  have  been 
taken  out  of  industry  for  the  army. 
It  is  a  duty  to  keep  cool,  to  think 
sanely,  to  avoid  hysteria.  It  is  a 
duty  to  refrain  from  giving  circula- 
tion to  sensational  rumors.  It  is  a 
duty  to  refrain  from  nagging  the 
Government,  for  the  Government  is, 
you  may  be  sure,  doing  the  best  it 
can.  And  finally,  it  is  a  duty  to  buy 
your  country's  bonds.  Buy  all  you 
can.  Take  that  ten  or  hundred  or 
thousand  dollars  that  you  have  been 


52         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

saving  for  some  cherished  personal 
purpose  and  invest  it  in  the  Lib- 
erty Loan.  That  is  the  most  prac- 
tical way  I  know  of  showing  that 
your  patriotism  is  not  confined  to 
words. 

:  There  is  another  form  of  sacrifice 
which  the  American  people  will  in- 
evitably be  called  upon  to  make,  and 
that  is  to  accept  without  complaint 
the  heavy  restrictions  which  the 
Government  will  find  it  necessary  to 
put  on  their  private  activities.  The 
Government  must  have  the  first  call 
on  coal,  iron,  steel,  timber,  chemi- 
cals, on  supplies  of  every  kind,  and 
particularly  on  transportation  and 
labor.  The  sooner  the  public  gets 
over  the  idea  that  we  must  have 
"business  as  usual,"  the  better.  The 
country  must  immediately  awake  to 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        53 

the  fact  that  we  cannot  carry  on  a 
war  like  this  with  one  hand  and  con- 
tinue to  do  all  the  business  we  did 
before  with  the  other.  We  can  no 
more  expect  to  change  from  peace 
conditions  to  war  conditions  without 
business  inconvenience  and  loss  than 
we  can  expect  to  send  an  army  into 
battle  without  having  killed  and 
wounded.  We  must,  therefore,  ad- 
just our  business  and  personal  affairs 
so  as  to  support  the  army  with  the 
greatest  possible  efficiency,  and  we 
must  do  it  with  the  least  possible  de- 
lay. The  woman  who  orders  a  gown 
which  she  does  not  need  is  not  help- 
ing labor  to  find  employment,  as  she 
likes  to  think;  she  is  preventing  a 
soldier  from  having  a  uniform  —  for 
how  is  labor  to  be  had  for  making  uni- 
forms unless  it  is  released  from  mak- 


64         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

ing  other  clothes?  Our  soldiers  must 
have  blankets  —  but  how  are  those 
blankets  to  be  had  unless  the  looms 
are  released  from  something  else? 
How  is  steel  to  be  had  for  food-ships 
and  field-guns  and  destroyers  unless 
there  is  a  prompt  curtailment  of 
its  use  for  other  purposes?  If  one  of 
your  pet  trains  is  suddenly  discon- 
tinued, don't  grumble,  but  just  stop 
to  remember  that  the  Government 
needs  that  train  and  its  crew  for  the 
purpose  of  moving  troops  and  muni- 
tions. If  your  favorite  restaurant 
curtails  its  menu,  bear  in  mind  that 
it  has  been  done  by  order  of  the 
Government,  which  recognizes  the 
imperative  necessity  for  food  con- 
trol. It  is  a  stupendous  task  that  we 
have  undertaken,  and  it  will  require 
every  particle  of  grit  and  staying 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        55 

power  that  we  possess  to  see  it 
through. 

I  would  that  every  man  and  wo- 
man in  these  United  States  might 
show  the  spirit  which  led  the  third- 
year  cadets  at  West  Point,  who  were 
this  summer  entitled  by  law  and  cus- 
tom to  the  one  furlough  a  cadet  has 
in  four  years,  to  unite  in  waiving 
their  right  to  these  two  months  to 
which  they  had  looked  forward  so 
long  and  so  eagerly  and  for  the 
spending  of  which  they  had  made  so 
many  plans,  and  to  offer  then-  serv- 
ices to  the  Secretary  of  War  in  any 
work  for  which  he  thinks  them  fitted. 
In  writing  to  his  parents  to  explain 
why  he  would  probably  not  be  home 
on  the  long-talked-of  furlough,  one 
of  these  cadets  said :  — 

"You  know,  as  cadets,  we  have  n't 


56        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

anything  but  these  two  months  to 
give,  so  we  thought  if  we  offered 
all  we  had  it  would  maybe  be  worth 
while,  even  if  it  was  n't  much." 

How  about  it,  my  friend?  Have 
you  offered  your  country  all  you 
have  to  give? 

There  are  doubtless  those  who 
sometimes  ask  themselves,  though 
they  may  deem  it  the  part  of  wis- 
dom not  to  ask  others,  "Even  if  the 
Germans  were  to  win  this  war,  what 
difference  would  it  make  anyway?" 
Well,  just  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
suppose  that  our  European  allies 
had  been  forced  to  sign  a  separate 
peace  and  that  Germany,  thus  left 
free  to  give  us  her  undivided  atten- 
tion, had  landed  an  army  on  these 
shores  (which  she  could  do  with 
comparatively  little  trouble,  the  mil- 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS         57 

itary  experts  agree)  and  held  a  por- 
tion of  our  Eastern  seaboard.  And 
suppose  that  one  evening  a  column 
of  men  in  gray  came  tramping  into 
the  little  town  where  you  live  — 
Quincy  or  Tarrytown  or  Plainfield 
or  New  Rochelle,  which  it  doesn't 
matter.  And  suppose  that  the  first 
thing  they  did  after  establishing 
themselves  in  your  town  was  to  ar- 
rest the  mayor  and  a  score  or  so  of 
the  leading  citizens  —  some  of  your 
closest  friends,  members  of  your 
own  family,  perhaps,  among  them  — 
and  lock  them  up  in  the  jail  or  the 
town  hall.  And  suppose  that  the 
next  morning,  when  you  start  down 
town,  your  eye  is  caught  by  a  notice 
tacked  to  a  tree.  The  notice,  which 
is  headed  by  the  Prussian  eagle, 
reads  something  like  this:  — 


58    BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 
PROCLAMATION 

In  future  the  inhabitants  of  places 
situated  near  railways  and  tele- 
graph lines  which  have  been  de- 
stroyed will  be  punished  without 
mercy  (whether  they  are  guilty  of 
this  destruction  or  not).  For  this 
purpose  hostages  have  been  taken 
in  all  places  in  the  vicinity  of  rail- 
ways in  danger  of  similar  attacks; 
and  at  the  first  attempt  to  destroy 
any  railway,  telegraph,  or  telephone 
line,  they  will  be  shot  immediately. 
THE  GOVERNOR 

And  supposing,  still  for  the  sake 
of  argument,  that  that  same  evening 
some  one,  ignorant  of  the  German 
threat  or  wishful  to  hamper  the  in- 
vaders at  any  cost,  succeeds  in  de- 
stroying a  bridge  or  cutting  a  tele- 
graph line.  And  that,  early  the  next 
morning,  you  are  awakened  by  a  sud- 
den crash,  as  though  many  rifles  were 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        59 

fired  in  unison.  And  that,  hurriedly 
dressing,  you  hasten  down  town  to 
learn  what  has  happened.  And  that, 
turning  into  the  main  street,  you  see 
a  row  of  bodies  —  the  bodies  of  men 
some  of  whom  you  had  known  all 
your  life,  men  with  whom  you  had 
gone  to  college,  men  who  were  fellow 
lodge-members,  men  with  whom  you 
had  played  bridge  at  the  club,  the 
body  of  your  father  or  your  son  or 
your  brother  perhaps  among  them  — 
sprawled  on  the  asphalt  in  grotesque 
and  horrid  attitudes  amid  a  slowly 
widening  lake  of  crimson.  Suppose 
that  this  dreadful  thing  happened, 
not  in  some  European  town  of  which 
you  had  but  vaguely  heard,  but  in 
your  own  town  —  in  Newburyport 
or  Yonkers  or  Princeton,  which  it 
doesn't  matter.  Then  would  you 


60        BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

ask  "Even  if  the  Germans  were  to 
win  this  war,  what  difference  would 
it  make  anyway?"  The  proclama- 
tion just  quoted  is  not  imaginary. 
It  was  signed  by  Field  Marshal  von 
der  Goltz  when  German  governor  of 
Belgium  and  was  posted  on  the  walls 
of  Brussels  in  October,  1914.  I  saw 
it  there  myself.  It  is  to  destroy  the 
monstrous  system  which  permits 
and  approves  the  execution  of  people 
"whether  they  are  guilty  or  not" 
that  we  have  gone  to  war.  For  if 
we  don't  destroy  it,  it  will  most  cer- 
tainly destroy  us.  The  trouble  is 
that  we  stubbornly  shut  our  eyes  to 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  which 
confronts  us;  we  have  not  aroused 
ourselves  to  the  colossal  magnitude 
of  our  task.  Sacrifices  and  sorrows 
without  number  await  us.  Before 


BROTHERS  IN  ARMS        61 

this  business  is  over  with,  we  must 
expect  to  be  deprived  of  many  of 
our  comforts  and  most  of  our  pleas- 
ures. We  must  be  prepared  to  ac- 
cept without  grumbling  the  imposi- 
tion of  very  burdensome  taxes.  We 
must  be  prepared  to  make  count- 
less personal  sacrifices,  to  submit  to 
innumerable  annoying  restrictions. 
We  must  expect  months  of  discour- 
agement and  heart-breaking  anxiety 
and  gloom.  We  must  gird  ourselves 
for  those  dark  days  when  the  lists  of 
the  wounded  and  the  dead  begin  to 
come  in.  For  such  will  be  the  price 
of  victory. 

The  surest  way  to  bring  about  an 
early  peace  is  to  convince  Germany, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  misunder- 
standing, that  we  stand  behind  the 
Government  to  the  last  cent  in  our 


62         BROTHERS  IN  ARMS 

purses  and  the  last  breath  in  our  bod- 
ies; that  in  our  vocabulary  there  is 
no  such  word  as  "quit " ;  that,  no  mat- 
ter how  appalling  the  price  that  may 
be  exacted  from  us,  we  shall  not  re- 
lax our  efforts  by  one  iota  until  the 
world  has  been  "made  free  for  De- 
mocracy "  forever. 


THE  END 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .   S    .   A 


A     000093419     o 


